Thursday, July 24 – Spokane

Nothing much to report today. We attended sessions of the convention throughout the day. We had a really good lunch at a pub across the street from the hotel. They have about 20 kinds of draft on tap.

After the sessions, we drove out to Costco looking to fill Carla’s shopping order. We found the Mexican Coke (using cane sugar) and some craft beer from Oregon.

Our weather has been quite warm until yesterday afternoon. We had quite a wind storm during part of our bus tour. After that it stayed quite a bit cooler and windy. Today I heard some of the locals talking about power outages and downed trees. Today remained cool and windy. It is a bit of an annoyance, as we have to go outside cross from our hotel to the original building where the meeting rooms are. You don’t want to have to carry a jacket around all day, although the meeting rooms are cool enough that a jacket might not be a bad idea.

It is odd that in Spokane, which proudly trumpets its system of elevated walkways connecting its downtown buildings, they would build an addition to an old hotel, a new parkade, and a new hotel all on the same corner without connecting them by a covered walkway. There is also a small boutique hotel across another street that is part of the group, also unconnected. At almost any time of the day you will observe staff moving on the street between the buildings, sometimes even moving equipment like baby cribs, luggage carts, etc.